The tales of King Arthur have fascinated me ever since I first read them, years ago, in a volume of Reader’s Digest condensed books. One section of those stories that…

This week’s music: “Her Right Hand Rules the World,” by They Sang As They Slew, from Get Well (Northern Records, 2004). Great band, great record, great Tolkien reference. General Introduction…

I’m not a great patriot, a fact you may have picked up on from the “God and Country” episode of the podcast. I’m certainly not anti-American, and I’m not particularly…

Revised Common Lectionary readings for 14 February 2010 (Epiphany, Year C) Exodus 34:29-35 Psalm 99 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36 The Transfiguration is one of those stories that I’d like…

Crévecoeur and the Two Faces of America The back of the Penguin edition of J. Hector St. John de Crévecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer says “History” on it, and…

Scholars Turn their Attention to Attention by David Glenn I’ll admit that, sometimes, I like to play the Neil Postman conservative.  I could point to students in nearly every class…

For anyone who’s interested, I have an article (“William Faulkner’s Failed Augustine”) in the current issue of The Explicator (January-March 2010). Here’s the webpage. But if you want to read…

Upon listening to the most recent episode, I discovered (to my chagrin) that I’d made some embarrassing errors of memory, particularly in (to my shame) my references to Christ’s parables.…

Today, the third of February, is feast day of St. Laurence (Laurentius) of Canterbury.  He was an early figure of the branch of Christendom we might style “Germanic”: St. Laurence,…

General Introduction – An apology for Nathan Gilmour’s absence – A plug for our website – A eulogy for J.D. Salinger What Is Comedy? – Comedy in a cosmic sense…

If you keep up with the book blogosphere at all, you’ve no doubt already stumbled across this piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education, a brutal takedown of Ralph Waldo…

Revised Common Lectionary readings for 7 February 2010 (Epiphany, Year C) Isaiah 6:1-13 Psalm138 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Luke 5:1-11 It’s not hard to affirm or criticize youth ministers’ commonplaces.  I…